WRTI will broadcast a Philadelphia Orchestra performance of Mozart and Beethoven this Sunday, highlighting some musical connections between these two masters. As WRTI’s Susan Lewis reports, on the podium will be Christoph von Dohnanyi who has a longtime connection with the Philadelphians.
The harp is one of the world’s oldest instruments. And now, thanks to the efforts of Philadelphia Orchestra Principal Harpist Elizabeth Hainen, concert grand harps are once again being played in Philadelphia schools.
As WRTI’s Susan Lewis reports, Hainen is the driving force behind The Lyra Society, an organization she founded in 2004 to promote the harp through new commissions and lessons in the Philadelphia schools.
The Lyra Society presents A Harpist's Homecoming, with Philadelphia students and former Boston Symphony Principal Harp Ann Hobson Pilot, on Friday, April 5, 2013 at 6 pm at Philadelphia High School for Girls at Broad and Olney Streets. Information here.
On this Sunday's Philadelphia Orchestra In Concert broadcast, a pianist - world renowned for his interpretations of the music of Beethoven - performs a Mozart piano concerto. Surprisingly, it contains music by both great composers, as WRTI's Jim Cotter reports.
You can hear Rudolf Buchbinder perform Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 20 with The Philadelphia Orchestra on-air and online on WRTI.org at 2 pm on Sunday, April 7th.
Rudolf Buchbinder conducting Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 20 from the keyboard with the Vienna Philharmonic:
The second Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts, or PIFA 2013, opened on March 28th. As WRTI’s Susan Lewis reports, the Kimmel Center Plaza is once again be its hub - this time, with a giant Time Machine, and a number of free events. Kimmel Center President Anne Ewers says the festival highlights the Center's role as a public gathering space.
The city festival features music, theater, dance, and other activities staged by over 50 PIFA partners.
A number of free events will take place on the Kimmel’s Commonwealth Plaza, including Friday at noon concerts, late-night jazz, and a musical production Tuesday through Sunday nights. The 31-day festival ends with a public day-long fair on Broad Street on April 27th.
Watch a video featuring PIFA partners talking about their work and the idea of time travel.
An annual Jazz@The Point Festival is a cornerstone for the Somers Point Jazz Society; but the nine-year-old organization also spreads jazz around southern New Jersey throughout the year. Lectures and student workshops regularly round out concerts and performances at local venues all around Somers Point.
The Somers Point Jazz Society has helped put on a Tuesday night jazz series at Sandi Point Coastal Bistro for the last two years. WRTI's Meridee Duddleston stopped in recently on a show that featured Melanie Rice - vocals, Dean Schneider – piano, accompanied by Tim Lekan – bass, and Bob Shomo – drums.
There are a ton of great jazz vocalists in the world, but there's only one Dianne Reeves. Since age 11, she's been singing her heart out, garnering three Grammy awards for three consecutive CDs - the only vocal recording artist in any category to do that. And to top that off, she won yet another Grammy for her work on the soundtrack for George Clooney's 2005 film, Good Night and Good Luck.
Soprano Diana Damrau tackles Verdi’s eternal heroine for the first time anywhere in Willy Decker’s inspiring production. Plácido Domingo expands his repertoire to sing the baritone role of Germont, Violetta’s tormentor. Tenor Saimir Pirgu sings Alfredo, her naïve lover. Our very own Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts! Saturday, March 30, *12:30 to 3:15 pm. (*Note early start time.)
from Paul Moravec: Montserrat: Concerto for Cello and Orchestra
It’s the mystery of creation and Casals on Now is the Time, Sunday, March 31st at 10 pm. Paul Moravec visited Montserrat, home of a monastery and of a statue of Pablo Casals. The great cellist had played there and was friends with the monks who attended to the Shrine of Our Lady of Montserrat. Casals is memorialized by that statue and now by Moravec’s cello concerto Montserrat, played sumptuously here by Matt Haimovitz.
From eighth blackbird’s CD beginnings is Daniel Kellogg’s Divinum Mysterium. Chanticleer sings the Latin chant (from which comes the hymn “Of the Father’s love begotten”). Then Kellogg takes us on a journey through creation’s mystery, from stillness to rejoicing.
It was an unforgettable performance! Re-live it on Sunday, March 31st, 2 to 4 pm as then Music Director-Designate Yannick Nezet-Seguin took the podium in March, 2011 to conduct The Philadelphia Orchestra, Westminster Symphonic Choir, and soloists Dorothea Roeschmann and Matthias Goerne in a critically acclaimed performance of Johannes Brahms's humanistic and glorious Ein Deutsches Requiem, A German Requiem - a symphonic as well as a choral masterpiece.
Listen to our annual broadcast of Johann Sebastian Bach's St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244 on Good Friday, March 29th, a few minutes after 12 noon.
The recording features Karl Richter conducting the Munich Bach Orchestra, Munich Bach Choir, and Regensburg Cathedral Choir. Edith Mathis (Soprano), Dame Janet Baker (Mezzo Soprano), Peter Schreier (Tenor), Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (Baritone), and Matti Salminen (Bass).
